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by PopMatters Staff

Earlier this week, PopMatters reviewed the new James Blake album with Timothy Gabriele calling the record “a starkly naked, stripped, lonely futurist R&B album with a prominent, forlorn, and endlessly processed voice at its center.” The singer has just released a new video to continue his winning ways.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Nathan Moore released his ninth studio album Dear Puppeteer 1 February on Royal Potato Family, and now he’s ready to hit the road. Starting 9 February in San Luis Obispo, CA Moore will support ALO during the west coast stretch of their fifth annual Tour D’Amour, where fans choose the set-list. (Tour dates after the jump.)

Following his jaunt with ALO, Moore plans to open his agenda for his own fan-picked shows entitled Hippy Fiasco Rides Again. The Hippy Fiasco idea is for West Coast and South West fans to request “interesting” spots for Moore to perform; Moore can end up virtually anywhere from a fan’s basement to backyard, park, mall, who knows? The spontaneous performances are eventually announced via Moore’s site, social media and fan word-of-mouth. You can request shows at Moore’s website natanmoore.org, or by calling the Hippy Fiasco hotline (805.443.2423).

by PopMatters Staff

Prefuse 73 has a new album dropping in late April called The Only She Chapters and it’s something of a departure for the inventive artist. For this go-around he pairs with a number of female singers, most notably Broadcast’s late singer Trish Keenan. These are just little song excerpts on here, but they give you the idea of the overall project.

As a child, I tried, week after week, to convince my parents that we should just watch church services on TV on Sunday mornings. Doing so, I argued, was just as good as going to church. I lost this argument each and every week.

Now, the Catholic Church has blessed the new “Confession App” available for the iPhone. Though the Church has made it clear that this application is not meant to replace traditional confession, I can’t help but feel a certain amount of I-told-you-so-ness in this techno development.

For my part, I have eschewed cell phone use for most of my adult life for the most banal of reasons: I just don’t want to be accessible to any/everyone at all hours of the day. (Funny that I blog on the Internet, though). It will be interesting to see if the looming cellular presence of Catholic Guilt will scare people away from the iPhone. Also, I can’t help but wondering, given that this app hit the iTunes store after The Beatles did, if John Lennon was somehow right.

Faint and decked-out in delay effects, the vocals on Echo Lake’sYoung Silence EP cascade gently in the mix, with chiming guitars hard-panned to the left and right of them. This six songer is a mostly a lulling start for the UK act, but in line with the shoegaze well-knowns that shaped the sound of Young Silence, the players’ art rock tendencies lend lots of noise to the record.

While the usual suspects are to blame for Echo Lake’s debut—Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Ride—there is considerable promise in Young Silence. Shrill guitar feedback is steered back into the wealth of eerie melodies here, with every note positioned meticulously in mixdown for maximum “Wall of Sound” impact. Following the same “Be My Baby” drums that have hijacked more songs in the last ten years than any other rhythm has, the title track suddenly twists and turns, shaking loose of any familiar confines. Echo Lake founding member Linda Jarvis contributes a delirious haze of indistinct vocals over what’s suddenly an earth-shaking assault of drones and cymbals. The guitar lines are bent and frail, with Jarvis’s breathy and breathless call seeping into every jangly corner. Mesmerizing.

Young Silence is out on No Pain in Pop on February 14 (UK) and on February 15 (US).